Bigger Is Better
Except when you can’t get the damn thing through the door. My cousin is looking at buying a Toshiba 61″ (155cm) rear projection TV. A friend recently got a 50 incher, and I was pretty impressed with its size, so we pulled out the tape measure and measured out 61″. I was even more impressed. However, Toshiba had a larger 65″ model HDTV (shipping in a 224 kg package). It didn’t stop there. Although 61″ is pretty much the largest set obtainable in Australia, apparently there were 70 inchers around, so we started looking around the net for larger TV sets. We came across a Mitsubishi 73″ (185cm). That’s big. But it seems the Japanese have taken up the Yank adage that “bigger is better” with a little too much zeal and, unsatisfied with a behemoth 73″, have produced an 80″ (203cm) rear projection TV. Which is all fine and good until you realise that most Japanese apartments are smaller than the cardboard box these units would ship in (I mean, when you have hotels like this, space is a definite luxury – they aren’t side loading washing machines, nor are they cryogenic stasis tubes. Each door leads to a hotel “room”). The TV is 30″ deep, which means if you want to fit it through a normal sized doorway, you’ll have to remove the door, and door frame to fit it through. It towers at 74″ high (188cm) and has a screen larger than some of the smaller cinemas on George Street.
But wait, what if you want bigger? You’d have to go for a front projection unit. How about the Vidikron Kronos One, which projects an image up to 250″ big. Not the largest, but who could pass up a projection unit that is Pininfarina designed? (Y’know, the guy that designs Ferraris. Now you too, can have his logo, if not in your garage, then in your TV room). Of course, the Sony JumboTron has the last word in giant displays, although it isn’t exactly for the consumer yet. But only because the Yanks are waiting for the price to drop.
10:50pm (GMT +10.00) 
